THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vor. xviu.—/JULY, 1884.—No. 7. 
NOTES ON A NEW INFUSORIAN. 
BY DR. ALFRED C, STOKES. 
Fakty in the spring of last year (1883), I gathered a quantity 
of Lemna from a pond whose surface was so completely cov- 
ered by the little plants that they seemed to be jostling each other 
growing room. The water beneath must have been quite dark, 
being lighted probably only by so much of a faint green glim- 
mering of sunbeams as the Lemna could transmit, yet that shal- 
pond contained myriads of living creatures. For eight 
Months or longer the gathering has stood neglected upon my 
table, a little fresh water being occasionally added to supply that 
: evaporation, and it is still clear and untainted, although 
ery frond has lost its rootlets, and the greater number have 
Bone to decay, and though many generations of Infusoria, rotifers 
; E i bellarian worms have come and gone, and added their little 
2 residual detritus covering the bottom of the vessel. The 
; glass therefore, now living within the restricted habitat of this 
and Saucer cannot be considered as Infusoria of putrid waters, 
) ace recently appearing there in midwinter are probably from 
4 a e into development by a kind of hot-house process in 
a _ 00m. The same forms might be taken in season from 
esan Sal Pond itself. They seem, however, to have hitherto 
“which, observation, and as they possess structural peculiarities 
te} a far as the writer can learn, are limited ‘to their own lit- 
wi it is necessary to erect not only a new species for 
7, gen. et sp. nov., is soft and flexible, but persistent in 
TOU, XVM ~ao, vir, om 
